Abstracta IranicaVolume 31  (2008)Varia

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Colin P. Mitchell

Visions of Mughal India: An Anthologyof European Travel Writing. London,I.B. Tauris, 2007, 256 p.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Référence électroniqueColin P. Mitchell, « Visions of Mughal India: An Anthology of European Travel Writing. London, I.B. Tauris, 2007, 256p. », Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 31 | 2008, document 173, mis en ligne le 11 octobre 2012, consulté le 27septembre 2015. URL : http://abstractairanica.revues.org/39592

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Document accessible en ligne sur :http://abstractairanica.revues.org/39592Document généré automatiquement le 27 septembre 2015.Tous droits réservés

Visions of Mughal India: An Anthology of European Travel Writing. London, I.B. Tauris, 20 (...) 2

Abstracta Iranica, Volume 31 | 2008

Colin P. Mitchell

Visions of Mughal India: An Anthologyof European Travel Writing. London, I.B.Tauris, 2007, 256 p.ed.

1 Our understanding of Mughal India is to no small degree bolstered by a significant numberof European travel accounts produced in the 16th-18th centuries. While we depend on courtchronicles and religio-philosophical treatises to better understand the ‘elite’ narrative ofMughal India, the day-to-day, quotidian details of life in early modern South Asia are largelyabsent in such ‘indigenous’ documents. For this reason, historians of social, gender, urbanand economic history are often drawn to the corpus of travel writings of various Europeans.To some degree, this has motivated Michael Fischer to compile a number of such accountsin Visions of Mughal India, although it is also clear that this is a text that would be bestused in an undergraduate seminar to provide students access to key primary sources. Aftera lively preface by William Dalrymple (author of White Mughals and The Last Mughal),Fisher provides a fairly detailed introduction wherein he provides context not only to theMughals, but also to the genre of travel writing in early modern European society. Theseaccounts are diverse and varied, and they all fall within the period of the 16th and 17thcenturies; Fisher wisely avoids the 18th and 19th centuries as the colonial enterprises in Indiaproduced a staggering amount of European literature on South Asia. Ten authors are profiled,and the editor has chosen selections from their respective travel accounts; most are takenfrom published (and translated) texts, although one or two are based on manuscript sources.The first is the Russian horse dealer, Afanasy Nikity, who traveled to India on the eve ofBabur’s 1526 invasion of the Indo-Gangetic Plain; his account presents an undeniably unique,Russian perspective. Venetians were no doubt well known for their wanderlust, and Fisherprovides selections from both Cesare Federici and the famous Niccalao Manucci (authorof the multilingual Storia do Mogor). Catholic missionary institutions were also importantcultural intermediaries, and here we look to the writings of Antonio Monserrate (PortugueseJesuit), Sebastian Manrique (Portuguese Augustinian), and Domongo Fernandez de Navarrete(Spanish Dominican). Given their religious and cultural mandates, these ecclesiasts and theiraccounts are particularly valuable for their presentation of specific social customs among theGentiles (Hindus) and Musulmans (Muslims). Two East India Company officials are profiled– William Hawkins and Peter Mundy – but their respective accounts are more focused on theirtortured negotiations with the Mughal authorities as they sought to further establish the EastIndia Company as the preeminent trading institution. Lastly, we have the two well-knownFrench travelers, François Bernier and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, whose accounts are invaluablefor glimpses into the political, philosophical, and cultural narrative of Mughal India. Fisherprovides a glossary at the end of this collection to help readers with transliterated vocabularywhich appears in the travel accounts.

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Référence électronique

Colin P. Mitchell, « Visions of Mughal India: An Anthology of European Travel Writing. London, I.B.Tauris, 2007, 256 p. », Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 31 | 2008, document 173, mis en ligne le11 octobre 2012, consulté le 27 septembre 2015. URL : http://abstractairanica.revues.org/39592

Visions of Mughal India: An Anthology of European Travel Writing. London, I.B. Tauris, 20 (...) 3

Abstracta Iranica, Volume 31 | 2008

À propos de l’auteur

Colin P. MitchellDalhousie University - Canada

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Entrées d’index

Rubriques : 4.2.3. Inde musulmane